CBJ Assembly Meetings

June 3, 2013
Agenda

The Juneau Assembly last night adopted a $313.6 million operating budget for the city and borough for next year. As previously reported by KTOO, the budget was balanced through a combination of cuts and a small property tax increase.

The spending plan takes effect July 1st , the start of the new fiscal year.

The Assembly also approved a total mill levy of 10.66 which includes a small increase for debt service.

The budget adoption ends weeks of Finance Committee meetings to hammer out details.

Proposed increases in fees to balance the Juneau International Airport budget prompted the most discussion at last night’s meeting.

“We’ve received several letters from airport tenants about this,” Mayor Merrill Sanford said.

Airport Manager Patty deLaBruere says airport officials held four finance meetings to work with airport tenants, and will continue to work with the group.

Coastal Helicopter’s Mike Wilson represented the airport tenants group, which sent a letter to the Assembly objecting to the speed at which the changes were being implemented.

Wilson told the Assembly last night the group will hold additional meetings with the finance committee to see about using emergency funds to help offset costs in the short term.

The Assembly approved the adjustments to airport rates and fees to cover the projected shortfall. If the airport finance committee makes additional change, they will have to be approved by the Assembly as a budget amendment.

Sanford asked that the tenant group and the airport finance committee work closer on the issue.

The City and Borough of Juneau should hire a dedicated housing coordinator.

That’s the recommendation of the Juneau Affordable Housing Commission.

The CBJ Assembly reviewed the commission’s recommendations on Monday as a Committee of the Whole.

The lack of sufficient housing has been a decades-long problem in the Capital City, and finding solutions is a priority of the current Assembly. The Committee of the Whole has been meeting with stakeholders since January.

The Affordable Housing Commission’s memo says the housing coordinator “must be a permanent, high profile position within the CBJ, tasked with staying on top of housing trends, exploring out of the box strategies, applying best practices, and monitoring and communicating progress towards key benchmarks.”

The Commission also recommends the CBJ adopt a long-term Housing Plan and sell city-owned land in the Peterson Hill and Switzer Creek areas to developers.

The Commission’s recommendations are similar to Assembly proposals, according to Deputy Mayor Mary Becker, who chairs the Assembly’s ad hoc Housing Committee.

In other city news, a new Downtown Snow Storage facility at the Rock Dump should be completed by August 1st.

CBJ Engineering Director Rorie Watt says the city has about $2 million in a capital project fund to build snow storage facilities both downtown and in the Mendenhall Valley. The city did a study of 40 possible snow storage locations, and Watt says the Rock Dump was the only practical site in the downtown area. He says the city is still considering location options for a Mendenhall Valley Snow Storage facility.

Snow disposal is regulated under state water quality standards.

The Juneau Assembly has ratified terms of a new three-year contract agreement between the city and firefighters.

Members of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 4303, already voted to ratify the negotiated agreement, which includes a 1 percent pay increase on July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.  Next year, wages go up 1.5 percent.

Employer health care contribution rates also increase in fiscal year 2015.

In addition, the Capital City Fire and Rescue pay schedule has been rewritten.

The contract changes will cost the city a total of $555,737 over the life of the contract, according to CBJ Manager Kim Kiefer.  It expires on June 30, 2016.

Assembly member Randy Wanamaker wanted to delay the vote, objecting to the way the tentative agreement was presented to the Assembly. It was on the Assembly’s Consent Agenda.

Wanamaker said he wanted more information, though the entire agreement was provided to the Assembly in its packet before Monday’s meeting.  City Manager Kim Kiefer also briefed the Assembly in a closed door session prior to the  meeting.  Other Assembly members said they had enough information to take the vote.  It passed unanimously.

Other Assembly news

Trucano Construction is the winner of a CBJ bid to construct a new Fisheries Terminal Dock in downtown Juneau.

The Assembly Monday awarded the Juneau-based company the contract to rebuild the dock near the University of Alaska Southeast Technical Center.  The existing dock was struck by a boat and damaged beyond repair.

Trucano was the low bidder of three companies who submitted proposals for the construction project.  Trucano’s contract with the city totals $106,489.  The CBJ engineer’s estimate is $120,000.

 

Juneau parking violators will soon get a “notice of violation” and those who want to appeal will appear before a city hearing officer, not a district court magistrate.

The Assembly Monday night approved an ordinance changing the way the city handles civil fines.  It comes in response to a recent Alaska Supreme Court order that nullified citations not delivered in person.

Violation notices will still be put on the vehicle windshields, but instead of being an infraction sent to district court, the city must set up a traffic court system.

Only Ketchikan and Anchorage have municipal traffic courts.  When the Supreme Court issued its order last month, most other cities were forced to throw out their traffic offense system, according to CBJ attorney John Hartle.

“In Anchorage, they have their own municipal court system and they have municipal judges to hear these things.  In Ketchikan, I understand it’s the manager’s secretary.  So it shows a rather broad continuum; I think we will fall somewhere in between those,” Hartle told the Assembly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            City Manager Kim Kiefer said a hearing officer will initially be located in her office.  She plans to move a current city employee into the position.

“At some point we’re potentially going to set up a traffic court time and we need to determine if that’s two or three hours.  We’re looking at trying to set it up over a lunch hour to make it easy for people to come to it and not have to take off work,” Kiefer said.

The ordinance does not change current parking laws.

The state Supreme Court order that nullified traditional parking tickets was in response to a housekeeping measure approved by the Alaska Legislature in 2010.  Hartle said he hopes the legislature next year will reverse what has been called an unintended consequence.

May 13, 2013
Agenda